The Stunted Relationship
by Foxy'sGirl
Summary: Three years after the war, and Aang and Katara still haven't managed to become a couple.  How that changes.  T to be safe.  If it means anything I like this story alot.


**Randomness written in between 3 and 5 in the morning. I personally love it. I hope it strikes some of your fancies. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the last airbender.**

The Stunted Relationship

The years after the war had not been idle for the group of young heroes. For the most part the Gaang had continued to travel the globe, repairing the fractures between the fire nation and the rest of the world. Then, nearly everyone had slowly left. Sokka had moved to the North Pole, where he became the water tribe ambassador to the fire nation. Suki moved with him and the pair quickly announced their engagement.

Toph had reconciled with her parents and now lived in a mansion down the street from them that she had built with the profits from starting her own earth and metal bending academy. The Boulder and his compatriots from Earth Rumble six were her first students and now they act as her teachers, so the sixteen year old is free to come and go as she pleases.

Zuko had claimed the throne of the fire nation, with Mai at his side, and started a new era of peace and prosperity for his country. His mother returned from seclusion and now lives in the palace. Azula acts as an advisor, meaning that Zuko asks her advice and then does his best to do the exact opposite. This method is proving extremely effective in the area of foreign relations.

Aang now travels between the three nations, keeping the peace, although as of late there's been very little to do. He signs a lot of treaties, gives a lot of speeches, and shakes a lot of hands, but for the moment there is peace. In the past 3 years since Ozai's defeat, Aang has grown out of his boyhood. The young Avatar underwent a growth spurt of epic proportions and now towers over the populous at 6'4". This tremendous height gain has left the young man rather absurdly willowy, but it did nothing to slow his accumulation of fangirls.

Katara of course remains with Aang. She stays with him in the igloos, the palaces, the tents, and the mansions. Katara underwent changes of her own. The eighteen year old girl has nearly as many admirers as her tattooed friend, and is nearly as clueless about them.

Even after Ozai's defeat, Aang and Katara's relationship never really took off. There was no whirlwind romance, but no denial of one either. The pair was stuck squarely in the middle of the bridge between friendship and something more.

They had kissed exactly 3 times since the end of the war. Once on the balcony of Iroh's tea shop, this had been the most important as it had left both of them sure that they were in a relationship. However neither of the pair had known where to even begin such a thing and in the end, the kiss had come to nothing. Their second kiss since the end of the war had been a favor that Katara had done Aang when the two were being followed by his groupies. Katara had pecked him on the lips, glared at the overexcited pre-teens and she and Aang had gone on to enjoy the rest of their day. Neither of them ever brought up the third kiss, it had brewed from a moment so painfully awkward that both teens fought to forget it.

They'd been spending the winter solstice at the North Pole, and helping with preparations for Sokka and Suki's wedding, when Aang had suddenly been summoned by Sokka for urgent business of some kind.

Two hours later, a red faced avatar charged into the suite of rooms he and Katara were sharing for the duration of their stay at the North Pole. Katara looked up from the waterbending scrolls she'd been studying by the firelight, and immediately became concerned by Aang flustered condition.

"Aang are you alright?" She set the scrolls on a nearby table as Aang took off his overcoat and hung it next to the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Aang walked over the other chair in the room but tripped on his own foot on the way and ended up not so smoothly falling into it. He squirmed until he was seated correctly, and then began fidgeting with the hemline of his shirt.

"So, what did Sokka want?" Katara squinted her eyes slightly at Aang who was twitching like someone had spiked his lychee nuts.

"Well, there was this emergency…" The airbender began, fishing through his brain for some sort of acceptable explanation of why Sokka had needed him, but after realizing that he was physically incapable of lying to Katara he answered truthfully, speaking very quickly and not breathing. "It was Sokka's bachelor party and we went to a strip club."

Katara raised an eyebrow. "Sokka took you to a strip club?"

Aang shrugged so quickly that it just looked like a nervous tick. "It's no big deal there were tons of guys there."

"There were tons of guys stripping?" A normal strip club sounded just like Sokka, but a male strip club?

"No, there were only naked women, no guys…well, there were guys they were just wearing clothes." Aang dropped his gaze to his thumbs which he began twiddling rapidly. Aang then stood up abruptly, wanting to flee the room and go sit in a quiet corner until his heartbeat slowed down and he remembered how to speak without embarrassing himself, and again tripped over his own foot and somehow managed to fall into Katara's lap.

He shoved himself back from her, narrowly avoiding knocking her head with his. However, as soon as he had scrambled to his feet, he realized that he was pushing himself up using a particular part of her chest. He eeped and removed his hands from her too quickly, which resulted in him falling forward and knocking her chair backwards. She saved herself from falling by catching the back of her chair with an icicle that she pulled up from the icy floor.

Aang, who had learned from his previous mistake, used airbending to right himself, and quickly strode into the corner where he pounded flaming fists against the wall in frustration, creating two perfectly round holes in the ice. He ran his hand backwards over his scalp and growled to himself, "Well, that couldn't have gone any worse if I'd just walked up and kissed her." He threw his arms up in the air.

Katara, who had been 10 feet away for this whole little tantrum, of course, heard the whole thing. She was also feeling quite uncomfortable and while enveloped in her discomfort and feelings of awkwardness she blurted out, "Why don't you?"

Aang slowly turned around and their gazes met. He blinked slowly a few times, as if he were trying to wake himself up. Then he covered the distance between them in three careful, measured steps. He bent down and put his hands on the arms of her chair. Then he stood there for a second, looking Katara squarely in the fade. She was as bright red as he'd ever seen her.

Finally, the airbender leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly and chastely against Katara's. Both teens squeezed their eyes shut and remained there for a few short seconds before Aang broke the kiss and walked with the same precise steps to his bedroom, and shut the door behind him.

Neither of them likes to bring that up.

Currently the Avatar is staying at the house given to him by the earth king. The house in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se is almost completely dark, spare one room whose gentle glow can be seen through the gossamer curtains. Inside the room the young avatar sits meditating by candlelight. The single candle sits on the windowsill, illuminating the room just enough to see the sixteen year old boy's chest rise and fall gently as his mind focuses on something far away.

Katara is in the next room and can't sleep. She hopes Aang won't mind her waking him as she slides out of bed and tiptoes down the hall. She sees the candle's glow and stops in the doorway. When she sees Aang meditating, she leans against the door frame and decides to wait a few minutes. She's just about to give up and go back to bed when Aang opens his eyes.

"Oh hey Katara, what are you doing up?" Aang stands up and stretches for a minute, twisting back and forth and waiting for Katara's answer. As Aang works out the cramps in his back Katara can't help tracing his tattoos with her eyes. He's not wearing a shirt and she follows the blue line down his bare back, to his scar and then past it to the waistline of his pants.

"Did it hurt?" She asks absently approaching Aang.

"No, I was just sitting there for a while." Aang cocks his head and his neck pops loudly in the silence of the room.

"No, did it hurt when you got your tattoos?" Katara reaches out and grabs Aang's hand, resting it on one of her own and tracing the head of the arrow with her index finger. Aang shivers slightly at her gently touch but then proceeds to answer her question.

"Yeah, but the monks gave me poppy extract to dull the pain." Katara is satisfied with the answer and she continues her tracing up Aang's arm and around to his back. He turns obediently when she pushes on his shoulder, signaling him to turn his back to her. She puts her finger on the nape of his neck and follows the line downwards to the scar caused by Azula's lightening. She rests her palm on the red patch of skin, that still looks sore even three years later. She can feel his heart thrumming abnormally fast, and realizes that her own is beating at an alarming pace.

Katara is truly sick of this thing she and Aang have. As she's grown she has come to want nothing more than a romantic relationship with the Avatar, but a combination of her nerves, Aang's shyness, and both of their fear of rejection has always stood in the way. But tonight, tonight Katara doesn't feel nervous. Her eyes flit to the window and sure enough she can see the glowing orb of the full moon through the thin white curtain. She traces Aang's arrow down below his scar, following the line until it intersects with the waistband of his pants. She leaves her fingers resting at the juncture for a minute, and feels Aang's breathing pick up. Katara sets her jaw and gives herself the speediest internal pep talk known to mankind. She takes a deep breath and a step forward, then wraps her arms around Aang's narrow and toned waist, hugging him from behind.

The Airbender seems to stop breathing for a minute at the same time as Katara feels his heart beat out of control against his back. She closes her eyes and relishes in the feel of his warm, smooth skin against her cheek. The two stand there for what seems like an eternity before Aang swallows and stutters, "K-k-Katara?" She realizes how deep his voice has become the last three years. It's not a baritone by any means, just a more masculine version of his childhood chirp.

"Mhmmm?" She doesn't bother to open her eyes, she just tightens her grip on his waist. She decides that she really doesn't hug him enough.

"What're you doing?" He's not rejecting her, he's just confused. Katara hadn't really touched him when he had his shirt off since she was obligated to correct his stance while waterbending. It was just one of those things that confused them, on of those lines in their friendship that they didn't cross.

"I'm hugging you." She explains like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Aang furrows his brow, even more confused.

"Okay." Katara nuzzles the soft skin of his back before speaking. She figures this will be easier to say without looking at his face. He'd make that nervous face, and his eyes would be so big and he'd bite his lip and she'd lose all of her nerve. She knew it would happen, it had happened before.

"I'm kind of sick of being your friend, Aang." She admits. Aang is shocked by her statement and tries to break her grip but she's surprisingly strong and doesn't yield to his movement. "I mean I'm sick of being just your friend." Katara stops and waits for Aang to get it, to say something that means he knows what she's saying. When nothing but silence meets her ears she continues, "I've been waiting three years for you to step up and do something." Aang still doesn't respond.

Katara unclasps her arms and tugs on Aang's side, turning him to her. The Airbender is staring down at her in confusion. He's making that adorable nervous face but Katara doesn't let it faze her for once. "Don't you love me Aang? Because Agni knows I love you." Aang continues to stare down at her. After what feels like decades his teeth release his lip and his hand comes up to cup her face. She feels her skin heat up beneath his touch. She'd never realized how big his hands had gotten, just his palm covered from her jaw to her temple. His other hand rested on her shoulder and she felt so small beneath his towering height.

"Of course I love you Katara." The words sound so familiar coming from his mouth that Katara doesn't realize their gravity until he's kissing her. She's surrounded by Aang, engulfed, he's taken over all of her senses. His hands on her face and now her waist are all she feels, all she hears is her heartbeat reacting to him. All she sees are fireworks on the inside of her eyelids from his kiss, all she smells is his clean, breezy scent, and all she tastes is his lips. She slowly moves one arm up across his chest and around his neck and her other hand finds its way to his back. It's heaven and she's sure that she'll wake up alone in her bed at any minute but she doesn't and as the couple part for breath and Aang rests his forehead against hers she realizes how real it all is and her face breaks into a huge grin.

She lets her heels drop to the ground, not really knowing when she'd gone onto tip toe in the first place, and rests her head against his chest. She feels his heartbeat slowly return to normal. They stand there for a few minutes before Aang yawns and triggers a yawn from Katara.

Katara lifts herself on tiptoe and presses her lips to Aang's briefly. "Goodnight, Aang." He kisses the top of her head before reluctantly letting her go and stepping back.

"Goodnight, Katara." And the two of them walk off to bed, exhausted and content that this time, they know exactly what they've gotten themselves into.

**This story is 2500 words of success in my opinion. I believe I have found my calling in fanfiction. I shall call it Awkward. There my own genre, Awkward. Just like my own pathetic excuse for a love life this story is incredibly awkward! **

**Please review and let me know if anyone enjoyed reading this awkward piece of random as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if anyone has any ideas for any pairings that they would like to be awkwarded (my own word, couldn't you tell?) I would love suggestions. **

**If you liked this story you should read my Toko two-shot mishaps above the tea shop. It was my first step in discovering the awkward. I should copy write that, THE AWKWARD. It would make me big bucks one day if anyone actually thought that it's as funny as I do. **

**Please review. Even if all you say is I like the word awkward way too much. And please suggest some pairings to me!**


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